Clemson, GHS create healthcare research powerhouse

Clemson, GHS create healthcare research powerhouse

June 04, 2013

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Clemson University
and Greenville Health System (GHS) will establish a healthcare research
powerhouse that will fuel growth in medical research and breakthroughs,
create opportunities for faculty, physicians and students and
accelerate the flow of research funding into the Upstate, boosting the
region’s economy.

The collaboration will lead to job-creating start-up businesses in the Upstate’s growing medical and bioengineering hub.

Under the landmark agreement signed June 4 by the presidents, Clemson
will be the primary research collaborator for GHS and serve as the
research administrator for all GHS research. This pivotal change will
allow both organizations to work collectively to leverage existing
administrative structures and expertise at Clemson with the clinical
opportunities offered by GHS, one of the largest healthcare systems in
the Southeast.

The agreement will support additional opportunities for Clemson faculty
to engage in health and medical research and open the door to more
federal research funding by partnering with physicians and surgeons at
GHS.

“We believe this collaboration will provide additional opportunities to
the increasing number of students interested in health and support
faculty recruitment in biological sciences, public health,
bioengineering and biomedical sciences,” said Clemson President James F. Barker. “We also anticipate doubling our healthcare research funding within four years.”

Clemson has worked with GHS on healthcare research projects since 1990 when a biomedical collaborative was launched.

Said GHS President and CEO Mike Riordan,
“By working together, we will create a research engine that will
accelerate improvements in the quality of health care and serve as an
incubator of new ideas and initiatives. Simply put, we are leveraging
resources in order to accomplish more than any one of us could do by
ourselves. We think this innovative model will not only benefit the
Upstate but could help transform the way health care is delivered
nationwide.”

The research will focus on applied or translational science that targets
some of the nation’s most-pressing healthcare needs. Early areas of
focus will include:
• Providing accessible and affordable health care by offering solutions
ranging from telemedicine and workflow models to innovative diagnostic
tools;
• increasing patient mobility and independence by developing
rehabilitation tools for individuals with injuries and aging adults;
• fighting cancer by working with partners to develop innovative
clinical trials, new diagnostic tools and novel treatments in
conjunction with tissue banking and on-site molecular profiling
available for all patients; and
• developing new medical devices to improve patient care and allow for discovery of new technologies and commercialization.

“This is only the beginning,” promised Spence Taylor, M.D.,
GHS’ vice president for academics and an internationally recognized
vascular surgeon. “We fully believe that the synergy of researchers
working with physicians, combined with the rock-strong infrastructure of
Clemson, will allow us to continue to develop research initiatives that
will directly improve the quality, access and cost of health care.”
Taylor, himself a 1979 alumnus of Clemson, is the architect of the new
research affiliation.

“The cornerstone of applied research is innovation capable of making an
immediate impact and of translating knowledge into practical use,” said
Taylor. “Over the past 60 years, as basic research has proliferated and
third-party funding for applied research has dwindled, the role of
knowledge translation to practical use has largely been relegated to
private industry.

“Through our academic medical center approach, we can harness the best of both worlds,” said Taylor.

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